Wanted to take the tram up and get to the top of Marion Mtn.. The plan is to take Tram Trail to Wellman Divide Jct and start finding a way up from there angling slightly west and south as we go up.

From other trip reports and google earth looks like a lot of brush (manzanita?) on the east side where we want to go up. Though there seems to be a bit less in a small ravine if you make a left at Wellman trail jct. If I was as proficient as HJ I would post a map. But I hope I'm explaining myself well enough.

Other than looping around to the back near deer springs, does anyone have any experince going straight up from Wellman divide and missing the brush?

Made it. Hit Jean first then over to Marion. On the way down we just followed which ever little course led us through the maze of brush. I would say we popped out maybe .25 mi south of Wellman Divide near the switchbacks. I wore shorts and only had one little scrape from the brush so felt it was a successful route. Once off trail we saw five dear and two humans. Weather was perfect.

Hey Zip, the flat area you mention is easy to get to by traversing to Jean from the trail junction just below San J summit, and from there toward Marion. I've done this a couple of times and it is not difficult to avoid brush, while tagging both summits. From there you can descend an interesting dry, brush-free, huge boulder filled drainage that meets up with the Deer Springs trail.

Hi Zip. Sadly I failed in the picture department. We came down Marion slightly NE and you can't help but be dumped into that flat area. Lots of places to camp if you wanted to. It's a big area. Soft dirt, little brush. The flat area almost guides you directly east and then down the hill. Not a lot of exploring because we stayed by the ridge for the most part thinking each little hump was part of Marion.

Maybe it was the rain in late Oct but very little signs of people there. I assumed even XC there would be some use trails in that flat area. I didn't see footprints or cairns. Of course we could have just missed them I guess.